I see Cassandra Clare signed a new deal with S&S for a YA fantasy set in Victorian London. Awesome. Love the era, love the horror/fantasy mix.

I am really pleased to recommend Word Painting: A Guide to Writing More Descriptively, by Rebecca McClanahan. It is entertaining reading as well as being packed with excellent examples and exercises. McClanahan rewrites examples to show how the text might have been written and how the emphasis is changed and the life stolen by good but not stellar discription. Often less is more, and a variety of tools breathes life into even the blandest environment.

The YA fantasy market is saturated, so I am told. But I wonder how saturated the appetite of YA readers is. I think YAs want what they always have wanted, a story about somebody that could be them, not to be talked down to, with plenty of pace and lots of heart. YAs are feeling their responsibility and their ability to make a difference. Those are not fantasies but realities, and novels that make them feel in control of a wild universe feed that reality.

What not to do when you are supposed to be...

writing a novel synopsis. What a drag. No matter how many times I wrote a synopsis while writing the novel, all jittery with excitement, like when you finally figure out the murky bits on a jigsaw puzzle. When it comes to writing THE SYNOPSIS after the last page has been written, well its kind of like watching reruns of Star Trek.